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About the Writer

Paula Crossfield is a founder and the Editor-at-large of Civil Eats. She is also a co-founder of the Food & Environment Reporting Network. Her reporting has been featured in The Nation, Gastronomica, Index Magazine, The New York Times and more, and she has been a contributing producer at The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio. An avid cook and gardener, she currently lives in Oakland.

When Yeo Valley Organic in the UK set to make an ad about their dairy products, they wanted to inspire people to pronounce the name correctly (it’s pronounced “yo”) and to get people talking about the brand. Of course, this led them to rapping about “cows, tractors and wax jackets” in a much talked about two minute music video.

“We really want to put ourselves on the map,” said Ben Cull from Yeo Valley Organic. “People know us as ‘Yeo’ and we want people to know what that stands for–it’s a real place, and we want people to know what we look like.”

Here’s a taste of the video’s raps: “I’m rolling in my Massey on a summer’s day/ drinking cold milk while I’m bailing hay/ Yeo Valley’s approach is common sense/ harmony in nature takes precedence.” The video is catchy, and well produced by director Julian Lutz–for whom this was the first time working on an ad with farmers. Perhaps this goes to show that sustainable food is going mainstream?

The ad debuted on October 9th, and has since garnered over 570,000 views on YouTube. Watch it below and gives us your thoughts in the comment section: Do you think these kinds of branding strategies are effective? How do you think utilizing branding and advertising in this way impacts the food movement? Do you think similar campaigns would work in the U.S.?

Here is the making-of video. Watch:

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meh, i would be more impressed if the farmers themselves did the rap and there was a little more dirt and soil visible. this is not real to me, exploiting and close to mocking a very hard way of life. those actors will go home and not be affected by the efforts of day to day farm labor. i also take issue with the over-simplification of the use of machinery involved. organic farming should use as little fuel as possible. bottom line> not real or convincing.. my 1 1/2 cents.. a.